The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Shawki Allam, received a delegation of Indonesian female scholars on Thursday, February 16, 2017 in his office at Dar al-Ifta. The Cultural Advisor at the embassy of Indonesia in Cairo accompanied the delegation. The meeting aimed to present Dar al-Ifta’s experience in the process of fatwa issuance.

During the meeting, the Grand Mufti stated that the Shari’ah treats men and women equally with respect to all legal obligations and that all the claims accusing Islam of depriving women of their rights are false.

Dr. Allam explained that the primary texts [Qur’an and Sunnah] are addressed to both males and females with words like “Believers”, “People” and “those who have believed”.

“We do believe in women’s vital role in the development of societies and their right to hold prominent positions in the state; for this reason, we have appointed a number of female employees at Dar al-Ifta over the past two years,” Dr. Allam stated.

The Grand Mufti pointed out that it is undeniable that women played a crucial role throughout the history starting from the Prophet’s time until present. In Islamic history, around 1500 women contributed with a number of scholarly achievements. For this reason, we find that women today have found their place in the scholarly and Shari’ah arenas.

For their part, the delegation praised the efforts of Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta in combating terrorism and extremism on both the regional and global levels. They also expressed their appreciation to Dar al-Ifta’s moderate methodology in fatwa issuance process.